24 April 2010<br/>
Adjacent to Old Furnace State Park, South Killingly, CT<br/>
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65ºF, south wind steady at 10mph, clear and sunny.<br/>
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(Dispatch times approximate)<br/>
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1824	South Killingly<br/>
1836	Danielson, Williamsville, State DEP<br/>
1850	Moosup, Atwood Hose<br/>
1855	Mortlake, Dayville, Moosup Valley, RI.<br/>
1906	Providence Canteen<br/>
1935	Attawaugan<br/>
1958	Sterling, Pomfret<br/>
2055	Under Control<br/>
2137	Scene Cleared<br/>
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I walked 2/3rds of the perimeter the following day.  Between what I recorded on my GPS and some good guesstimations, the fire was 9 acres.  Maximum dimensions were about 600' x 1200' with a 1/2 mile perimeter.<br/>
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Judging from the smoke, they had the heavy fire knocked down by 1915.<br/>
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Loom up from the east side:<br/>
<img src="./P4240179_small.jpg"/><br/>
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Loom up about 20 minutes later from west side.<br/>
I don't have standing permission to photograph South Killingly's calls and I barely missed being able to sneak in before the scene perimeter was set up.  So now photos from that day.<br/>
<img src="./P4240180_small.jpg"/><br/>
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An illegal campfire.  Old Furnace is a small park, unfortunately hit hard by vandals over the years, and this section also has a bad reputation for being a public "hook-up" location to put it politely.  Last time I was here was probably 20 years when I was a seasonal for the state parks and got to litter pick the used condoms while in uniform to make sure no one disturbed a cub scout outing that was going on.<br/>
<img src="./P4250184_small.jpg"/><br/>
<img src="./P4250185_small.jpg"/><br/>
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Nice access road.  This about 100 yards west of the fire.<br/>
<img src="./P4250186_small.jpg"/><br/>
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I must be getting close to the south end of the fire!<br/>
<img src="./P4250192_small.jpg"/><br/>
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Leaf and needle litter under hemlocks.  This would've been backing fire on the tail of the fire.<br/>
<img src="./P4250197_small.jpg"/><br/>
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Terrain was a little rugged in spots.<br/>
<img src="./P4250198_small.jpg"/><br/>
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Hah, I knew it :)  Yesterday I said from the brown color of the smoke it was more then just leaf litter, must be in small pines or mountain laurel.  In fact, both!<br/>
<img src="./P4250203_small.jpg"/><br/>
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Putting a protractor against this photo, we have about a 15º slope here.<br/>
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Why do I mention that?<br/>
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The speed of a fire doubles for every 10º of slope.<br/>
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A down wind speed of 1000' per hour would be typical fire behavior on a high danger day in Connecticut.  With a 15º slope and some napkin back math, you would be seeing spread around 3,000' per hour.  With the wind and slope lined up, this fire was covering some big territory which explains the loom up.  (I wish I was good enough with the math to do the full calculations, for future reference the 1800 hours information from the Weather Service at Willimantic was 67º, Dew Point 26º (equals 21% RH), Winds 12mph gusts to 21mph)<br/>
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This jives with my observations on the ground that the fire was about 1200' along it's longest axis, and it was about an hour from first report to when the heavy smoke stopped.<br/>
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<img src="./P4250213_small.jpg"/><br/>
<img src="./P4250213_small_protracted.jpg"/><br/>
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Not sure what this low bush is, possibly huckleberry or blueberries?<br/>
<img src="./P4250223_small.jpg"/><br/>
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What I do know is brooms and collapsible rakes aren't going to work well by themselves, and a leaf blower will be slow going.  A hose to soak things is the easy way out ;)<br/>
<img src="./P4250226_small.jpg"/><br/>
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Which is where our traditional Fire (a/k/a "Council") Rakes come in to play.<br/>
They triangle teeth are meant for use on a sickle bar mower.  They should be kept sharp, and can be replaced periodically by riveting new sickle teeth on.  The orange thing it's resting on is an old piece of 3-1/2" hose used as a cover for storage.  This one desperately needs to be sharpened.<br/>
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If you had to fight this fire with just indian tanks, rakes, and brooms this is where you need the fire rakes to be in good condition so they can cut that low, fine brush down then the brooms / collapsible rakes can remove the leaf litter.<br/>
<img src="./P4250262_small.jpg"/><br/>
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For you city boys, this is a sickle bar mower mounted on a tractor:<br/>
<img src="./Cub_fixed-811x571.jpg"/><br/>
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Sweet!<br/>
This fire really covered many different fuel types.  You had the hemlocks at it's tail, then came a mix of young white pines, oaks, and mountain laurel -- and now we hit a small grove of pitch pines and scrub oak!  Mountain Laurel & Pitch Pines are two of the most volatile fuels we have in Connecticut, they're both fire adapted species.<br/>
<img src="./P4250231_small.jpg"/><br/>
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Hmmm, missed a hot spot.  This is at the very furthest north progress of the fire.<br/>
<img src="./P4250248_small.jpg"/><br/>
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I'm eyeballing somewhere around 25º to 30º slope here.  Hmmm, maybe I need to start carrying an protractor in my backpack so I can figure this in the field.  The fire would've come up through here in a hurry.  Indeed, the burn marks on the trees are relatively small -- two, three feet.  Most of the fire was like that, until you got to the very northern edge which as the terrain flattened out and the winds died down as the sun went down got upwards of 8'.<br/>
<img src="./P4250252_small.jpg"/><br/>
<img src="./P4250255_small.jpg"/><br/>
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